--- St. John at the Last Supper ---

With the huge commercial success of Dan Brown's novel "The Da Vinci Code", some of the theories from this book became very popular. One of them says that Leonardo da Vinci placed Mary Magdalene and not St. John next to Jesus in his Last Supper painting. But a lot of other artist gave St. John, who was called "the beloved disciple" in the Bible, a certain look, which is now considered by many people as "feminine", but not necessarily five centuries ago. Since ancient times he was believed to be very young, so young that he did not even have a real growth of beard. You can also see his long hair and the devouted gestures on many other paintings of the Renaissance. This hairstyle was very fashionable for young Italians during the time of Leonardo da Vinci. It should be noted that not only John, but also other apostles were sometimes depicted in the same way.

We must try to understand the viewpoint of these artists, who grew up in a very androcentric environment - men and boys had a far more important position in this society than in the western world of today. The ideal of beauty since the 19th century became very gynocentric - a cute face is since then usually interpreted as "feminine", although most traits of a woman aren't specifically female. Compare the face of a pretty actress with the ones of young boys and you see it yourself: what still remains of the so called "Kindchenschema" makes most people believe that women would be the beautiful gender. Since St. John was considered to be very young, he was simply not old enough to look very adult. That is the reason, why people mistake him for a female, just like many long haired boys were mistaken for girls by elderly people during the 70s. They were not used to that look just like most Dan Brown fans are not familiar with depictions of St. John, done by other artists. Because of that, I decided to show you some examples from medieval times, the Renaissance and the Baroque era to underline my arguments. (Click on the pictures to enlarge them.)

Master of Gotlandc.1240

Duccio1308 - 1311

Pietro Lorenzettic. 1320

Giotto1320 - 1325

Jaume Serra1370 - 1400

Bertram von Minden1390 - 1400

Master of Raigen1410 - 1420

Sassetta1423

Andrea del Castagnoc. 1447

Jaume Bašo Jacomartc. 1450

Dieric Bouts the Elder1464 - 1467

Taddeo Crivelli1469

Jaume Huguetc. 1470

Master of Frankfurtc. 1480

Cosimo Rosselli1481 - 1482

Domenico Ghirlandaio1480

Domenico Ghirlandaioc. 1486

Gil de Siloe1496 - 1499

Spanish Master1498 - 1504

Luca Signorelli1502

Master Paul of L§cse1508 - 1517

Andrea del Sarto1520 - 1525

Bernaert van Orley1520 - 1530

Hans Holbein the Younge1524 - 1525

Jacobo Bassano1542

Juan de Juanesc. 1560

El Greco1568

Daniele Crespi1624 - 1625

Valentin de Boulogne1625 - 1626

Philippe de Champaigne1630

--- Other depictions of the Apostle ---

The following paintings present the apostle in another context. Like in the Last Supper, he was depicted by most artists as a long haired teenager. Other painters, especially those from Germany and the Netherlands, gave him an older appearance, but even there he is almost always beardless. Again you'll see that Leonardo da Vinci's way to portray him was hardly so unusual as Dan Brown wants us to believe. Even artists, who couldn't see Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper" before they started doing their own work, depicted the apostle like that, so everybody, who claims they just copied Leonardo da Vinci's idea, is therefore wrong.

Giotto"Washing of the Feet"1304 - 1306

Duccio"Washing of the Feet"1308 - 1311

South-German Master"Christ and John"c. 1320

South-German Master"Christ and John"c. 1320

Simone Martini"Crucifixion"1333

Giovanni da Milano"Crucifixion"c. 1350

Andrea da Firenze"Crucifixion"1370 - 1377

Meister von Brügge"Crucifixion"c. 1400

Jean Malouel"Pietà"1400 - 1410

Antonio da Firenze"Crucifixion"1400 - 1450

Master of Flémalle"Entombment"1410 - 1420

Masaccio"Crucifixion"c. 1426

Jan van Eyck"Crucifixion"c. 1430

Fra Angelico"Entombment"1438 - 1440

Dieric Bouts the Elder"Christ in theHouse of Simon"c. 1440

Andrea del Castagno"Crucifixion"1440 - 1441

Giovanni Bellini"Pietà"1455

Andrea Mantegna"Crucifixion"1457 - 1459

Enguerrand Charonton"Pietà"c. 1460

Hans Pleydenwurff"Deposition"1465

Hugo van der Goes"Lamentation"1467 - 1468

Hans Memling"Lamentation"1475 - 1480

Master of the Housebook"Washing of the Feet"um 1475

Master of the Housebook"Lamentation"1480 - 1485

Francesco Francia"Crucifixion"c. 1485

Pedro Sanchez"Entombment"c. 1490

Sandro Botticelli"Pietà"c. 1490

Albrecht Dürer"Lamentation"1494 - 1497

Perugino"Pietà"1494 - 1495

Perugino"Transfiguration"c. 1498

Raffael"Crucifixion"1502 - 1503

Vincenzo Civerchio"Preparation forthe Last Supper"1504

Master of St. Martin"Entombment"1509

Hans Seyfer"Crucifixion"1509

Gerard David"Deposition"1510 - 1515

Italian Master"Lamentation"1519

Albrecht Altdorfer"Crucifixion"1520

Il Sodoma"Pietà"1533

Bronzino"Deposition"1545

Giorgio Vasari"The Garden ofGethsemane"c. 1570

--- St. John the Evangelist ---

According to the Christian tradion, the Apostle John and John the Evangelist would be one and the same person. It doesn't matter, whether modern experts share that idea, since artists from medieval times, the Renaissance and the Baroque era only knew, what everybody was told back then. That is why the Evangelist is often depicted in the same way as the Apostle. Sometimes we see a bearded John the Evangelist, especially when the artist wants to show how he looked like at the end of his life as he was said to have died at a very old age.

Cimabue1301 - 1302

Pietro Lorenzettic. 1320

Limbourg Brothers1412 - 1416

Jan van Eyck1432

Enguerrand Charonton1452

Master of Ulmc. 1470

Martin Schongauer1470 - 1475

Hans Memling1475

Veit Stoss1477 - 1489

Hieronymus Boschc. 1490

Tilman Riemenschneider1490 - 1492

Michel Erhart1493

Master ofSt. Wolfgang1497

Fra Bartolommeo1504

Gerard David1505

Tilman Riemenschneider1505 - 1510

unknown Masterc. 1510

Hans Baldungc. 1515

Andrea del Sarto1517

Correggio1520 - 1524

Juan de Juanes1545 - 1550

Federico Barocci1580

Guido Reni1594 - 1598

El Greco1595 - 1604

El Grecoum 1608

Joachim A. Wtewael1610 - 1615

Jacob Jordaensc. 1620

Alessandro Algardi1629

Francesco Furinic. 1630

Alonso Cano1646 - 1650

--- Pictures of young males by Leonardo da Vinciand other Renaissance artists ---

Here are some other examples that give you a good idea, how young males were usually depicted in the art of the Renaissance. As I said before, these faces look "feminine" to modern eyes, but not to the sculptors and painters themselves. They looked for a higher, eternally youthful ideal of beauty, which could be described as "angelic". You can see that very well at these five angels that are displayed here. It is interesting to note that during the 19th century, angels really became women, as they now had female breasts, as a result of the different (much more bourgeois and heterosexual orientated) zeitgeist, while the angels of the Renaissance still had a flat chest.

Following Dan Brown's logic, a sketch for St. Philip would also "clearly show a woman". His assumption that Leonardo da Vinci would have replaced John with Mary Magdalene is getting even more absurd, when you keep in mind that many biographers, for example Serge Bramly, tend to think that Leonardo da Vinci and several other Renaissance artists were mainly, if not exclusively attracted to these beardless young males - their students and models. In the case of Leonardo da Vinci, one of them was nicknamed "Salai" (Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno). It's very much possible that Salai even modelled for "The Last Supper" as he was in his mid teens, when Leonardo did this famous wall-painting. He also looked very much like the St. John in this painting, especially if you compare it with "The Angel Incarnate". Besides that, they even have the same name, as Gian is only an Italian version of John.